"Honest hearts produce honest actions."
To its credit, the second add-on for Fallout: New Vegas has a lot to say - it just doesn't give itself enough time to say it. Whereas Dead Money had much to throw at you about greed and deception and trust, Honest Hearts kinda just throws you the Spark Notes. That's not really a bad thing at all, considering what you end up getting, but it does mean you might be able to brush off the story a lot sooner than you'd hoped.
Even then, it still ranks very, very high on the list of Fallout DLC, possibly even above Point Lookout. Maybe.
It begins with a radio signal, as they always do, and an invitation to join the Happy Trails Caravan Company on a trek through Utah, and a place called Zion. Apparently, the company has fallen on hard times, and this will be their last run if they're unable to unload their goods. They're not taking any chances, so you're hired to go along for the ride as security.
But you'll quickly find that your efforts were all for naught and things go terribly, terribly... terribly wrong for the caravan, just before you're thrown into an unstable conflict between three warring tribes in Zion. Yeah, didn't see that coming either.
The rest of the story will have you picking sides and deciding the fates of the native tribes, all the while being prodded by the mysterious Burned Man, Joshua Graham. And while all that's going on, you'll become privy to even more details on how the DLC storyline is going to eventually end up playing out. This, I thought, was the most interesting part of the add-on.
Unlike those of Fallout 3, all of the add-ons for New Vegas are connected in some way, quietly building up a scenario in which you will eventually cross paths with another courier. Who this courier is and why he means trouble is still (kind of) a mystery, but I think that's an amazing thing to try and pull off with downloadable content: to essentially give you a whole other game with its own underlying narrative.
But that's neither here nor there. The truth of the matter is that you're mostly paying for access to Zion National Park, since the story, and all of the characters (excluding the Burning Man) are largely uninteresting. People who are aware of the Mormon tradition of sending missionaries to "uncivilized" countries will get where Honest Hearts is coming from, and it really doesn't try to do much more than that.
Unlike Dead Money, though, it's a much more cohesive experience. You might die, but nowhere near as much without that collar around your neck. You might get strapped for ammo, but you won't be scrounging for it in every box and dresser you find. So, long and short, it's a more relaxed add-on. The lack of compelling characters was a turn off, as was the laid back story, but it was, overall, a satisfying expansion. Zion will always be waiting for you when your quests come to an end, though what state its in when you leave will ultimately be up to you. For that reason alone, it's definitely worth the purchase.
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